


At the End of the Rainbow

by edibleflowers



Category: A Mighty Wind
Genre: F/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-20
Updated: 2012-09-20
Packaged: 2017-11-14 15:37:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/516899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edibleflowers/pseuds/edibleflowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mickey hasn't thought about Mitch in years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At the End of the Rainbow

**Author's Note:**

> I take things too seriously.
> 
> Lyrics are from "When You're Next To Me", by Eugene Levy.

_When I hold your hand in mine_

Mickey went to the hospital with one intent: to thank the young man who'd unexpectedly defended her and her sisters' honor. But he had kind eyes, and she stayed beyond the initial sense of obligation, reading the words he scribbled on scraps of paper, and she saw that he had a poet's heart as well.

When he was finally released from the body cast, she was surprised once again to find that behind the bandages and wires that had kept his jaw closed, he was also quite handsome, tall and strong, with a thick mane of wavy hair and a sweet singing voice. She had already fallen in love.

_only good things do I see_

When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she hears Leonard mumbling in his sleep. "Spastic bladder," he says, smacking his lips, and she gets up to get a glass of water.

In the bathroom mirror, she stares at herself. She's not the girl she once was. She hasn't been that young, headstrong, carefree child for a long time. She chose this. A life of security, a life in which she is well-provided for, and even if there is no music in it, it's a small price to pay.

For thirty years, she's told herself that and believed it.

_Different world wakes_

It didn't take long at all for them to start playing out together. There were male-female duos already, plenty of them, but together -- as Mitch & Mickey -- they exuded a charisma, an affection for each other made all the more powerful because it was real.

After the second show, Mitch asked her on a date. He was shy, and Mickey found that endearing -- how could he be nervous when it was a given that she'd say yes?

On the third date, they kissed. He invited her home, and she accepted.

_A new morning breaks with the sun_

Seeing Mitch again is more than a little shock. She hadn't expected him to look so old. Her memory of him is fixed in her mind at about twenty years old, his hair black, his whole bearing tall and fearless. But depression and schizo-affective disorder have taken their toll on him, and his hair is grey now, his voice strange and stretched.

They do a few things for the documentary, and she hates that her first view of him again is on camera; this is a private moment, it should be hers alone. But that's part of the contract, so they embrace, and then Mitch goes to see the sprawling model train set in the basement, and they set up for the interview in the backyard. Afterwards, they sit in the living room. Mitch has the same old Martin guitar and she has her autoharp -- not the one she used to play, she bought a new one a few years ago, a replacement for the old one that she'd sold at auction. It takes a while to remember the first chords for "Kiss at the End of the Rainbow", but then they get into it and suddenly it's as if nothing has changed. Mitch is still smiling that secret little smile of his, the one that she always felt was only for her, and it's all so familiar that Mickey thinks it's 1968 again.

_every dove lands at your feet_

Mitch had his moments, to be sure. When Mickey caught him in bed with one of the hotel maids, she screamed at him until he pointed out that she'd ruin her voice for the show. He seemed befuddled by the whole thing, as if it was simply his right to reap the benefits of success. She didn't know how to get through to him that she loved him, that he was the only one for her.

Two days later, he woke her up by playing a new song, with some of the sweetest lyrics she'd ever heard. When he finished, he gave her a look that managed somehow to be both contrite and hopeful at once, and, with a smile, she pulled him down to her.

_when you're next to me_

After the concert, she leaves with Leonard. She's already said her goodbye to Mitch, backstage, slipping away before either of them could say anything about that kiss. Let a million people talk about the impact of it, the theatrics and drama and whatnot -- none of them would be able to understand how a human heart can get swept away in the heat of a heartbeat, in the warmth of a secret smile so achingly familiar, in a pair of warm, dark eyes that promise more than they can deliver.

Time passes, and she can shrug it off as "just one of those things" to almost everyone. But something's opened in her that's been closed for years, and she's starting to think she won't be able to shut it ever again.


End file.
